“Star Wars” T-shirts: The eight best fan-made designs

“Star Wars” Week on The Poop continues, and mercifully comes to an end, with this tribute to unauthorized “Star Wars” T-shirts. I think I’m ready to graduate to wearing one of these at the next local comic book convention. I like the X-Men tie that I always wear when I’m working on a WonderCon-related Chronicle story, but the other geeks look at me and think I’m a narc. Which is strange, because the only illegal thing I’ve ever seen anyone do at WonderCon is sell unauthorized Charley and Humphrey T-shirts.

littlechocolatedonuts.spreadshirt.com

Speaking of which … after looking online at several hundred fan created “Star Wars” shirts, I can say that many of them are very, very bad. Particularly the ones involving Chewbacca. But there were definitely enough good designs to wear a different “Star Wars” T-shirt for every day of the month, should I ever decide I never want to get laid again. Below are my eight favorites. Please debate my choices and/or add a link to your favorite in the comments.

I chose the shirts based mostly on content but also counted style. There were a lot of shirts that were funny (the whole “Death Star Was An Inside Job” movement is pretty entertaining) but weren’t designed particularly well. Stormtroopers and AT-ATs are by far the most popular subjects of T-shirts, and I didn’t see a single shirt featuring an Ewok. As it should be.

My favorites below. Here’s a list that’s bigger than mine, that had a lot of good designs. And here’s a list that only includes Stormtrooper T-shirts.

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8. Han Shot First

thinkgeek.com

Simple and direct, this shirt takes on the largest controversy in the “Star Wars” universe — the horrible decision to change the re-issue of “Episode IV” so it looks like Greedo shot at Han Solo before Greedo was killed by Han at the Mos Eisley Cantina. (About one-fourth of the “Star Wars” T-shirts I looked at focused on some sort of conspiracy theory.) I wish I had the cojones to wear this the next time I’m scheduled to interview someone at Skywalker Ranch. More information here.

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7. Death Star R.I.P.

geek.thinkunique.org

It says something about the dark side of the “Star Wars” fanbase that there are multiple shirts mourning the workers and Stormtroopers who died on the Death Star, but not a single shirt remembering the victims of Alderaan. Didn’t Jimmy Smits die in that explosion? More information here.

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6. Tribute to Admiral Ackbar

Teenormous.com

This shirt is kind of dumb, but I’m going to buy it anyway because Admiral Ackbar rules. Market research note to “Star Wars” T-shirt entrepreneurs working out of your garages and praying that the cease and desist letter doesn’t arrive from Lucasfilm: I’m buying pretty much anything with Admiral Ackbar on it. More information here.

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5. Darkside of Disco

teenormous.com

As someone who spent a lot of his life as a closet nerd, I really like the subtlety of this T-shirt. It doesn’t scream “‘Star Wars’ geek!” right away. And it combines two of the coolest orbs ever created: the Death Star and the disco ball. More information here.

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4. Evolution of the AT-AT

Teenormous.com

With apologies to Boba Fett, I think the giant robot dog AT-AT is the coolest example of character or vehicle design in “Star Wars.” By the way, it’s physically possible to spend the rest of your life wearing AT-AT-themed T-shirts (there must be 100 of them), although half of those shirts will feature the vehicles having sex. More information here.

I feel bad for ruining this urban legend for thousands of Bay Area residents, when I asked George Lucas and Phil Tippett if there was any connection between the AT-AT walkers and the Oakland port cranes. (They said no.) Sometimes journalists should just shut the hell up and leave well enough alone. (I still bought one of these shirts a couple of years ago.) More information here.

PETER HARTLAUB is the pop culture critic at the San Francisco Chronicle and founder of this parenting blog, which admittedly sometimes has nothing to do with parenting. You can follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/peterhartlaub.